OCinBuffalo

003.50 Or, I suppose it's actually 3.5234...because I said so. It's my number that I made up, try to disprove it! Anyway, good posts. As I have been saying, things are far from settled, and these people have a lot more work to do, and a lot less talking to do, if they truly want to move this forward scientifically. But....they don't want to do work. Work gets them nothing more than a $40k grant. Talking gets them on TV, gets them book deals, etc. I have been saying all along, I highly doubt finishing the work was ever the true goal. This was never about science, or hard work. This was about getting just enough evidence to create (now extremely tenous) support for the AGW theory, taking that to the leftist politicians, and them turning on their big, propaganda-->$-->power-->propaganda, perpetual, BS machines. These "scientists" saw 1st class for the first time in their lives, because some of that $ got kicked back to them. Now? All of that $ is gone. Sure, you get the odd clown and his $100 million in campaign funds to Ds who towed the watermelon line(green on the outside, red in the inside). The problem? That $100 million was pissed away, as all the D Senators it was intended to help are now out of office. The scientists saw none of that $100 million. The big time is over for these people.

Well, I guess the "cops are racists" story is over. Notice how that nicely ran interference for the Dems having to explain why they got their asses kicked, historically, in this election? Once again the MSM bails out the Democrat bad with the irrelevant.

When I read the title, I thought "Oh some real coach has the same name as the Seinfeld guy". I had no expectation that the Seinfeld guy was actually doing this: and why I didn't, I'll never know. We are talking about the Jets, and their fans, like Larry David, after all. Although, writing a story is writing a football play and vice versa. You have a setting(O line), a plot(QB), characters to develop(TE, WR, RB)...so of course a play is a story. The real difference is: Seinfeld guy gets to make his characters, plot, and setting whatever he wants with a few key strokes. A football coach has to work the the players he has, and can't just change things.

What exactly separates this effort from any other Kanye effort? Seriously. I've heard nothing but talentless crap from this guy. There are acts, I've seen, all over the country that deserve our attention 10x more than this clown. The fact that we are even talking about auto-tune, in the same context with a Beatle....is F'ing obtuse. This whole thing is preposterous. When we were growing up, who didn't know about at least one of the following: Elvis, or Chuck Berry, or Muddy Waters, or Buddy Holly, or Jerry Lee Lewis? All of these pre-date the Beatles. Or, I merely had cooler parents than the rest of you. All that's happening here? Yet another confirmation that: today's music is exactly as good as today's fans. "New" music fans suck, so, sucky music/cluelessness is accepted by them, and they are getting exactly what they deserve. Retard begets retard. Any jackass with no musical ability, but, a drumkit and a "message from the street" is presented as a "genius". Meanwhile, Paul Simon, Greg Allman, and all the guys in The Band were living "the street", or "the road" for real, and writing its music, before they were 16. Same is true for the Grunge guys from the 90s. Hell, Etta James and Willie Dixon are giants, while Beyonce and Kayne are infants by comparison, in terms of talent, not hype. Kayne West isn't fit to wipe Paul McCartny's ass. "Blackbird"(go look it the F up if you don't know, clowns), all by itself, owns Kayne's entire existence. Kayne can produce/perform/direct/collaborate/...put another slash in, for the rest of his life....and still never approach "Blackbird"'s gravity, artistic value, or longevity. The moral here is: Paul McCartny, by merely existing, makes this entire story...ironic, and it's literally 30-40 years after he did his best material. Kayne? In 30 years? What's he going to be doing besides crap TV shows, if he's lucky? More likely, he's parking my F'ing car. Are there going to be any Kayne West/"2010s collection" sold on informercial at 2 am, 20 years from now? Is there going to be a "remember this song, and how important it was...for that 2 weeks?: But take comfort: I always tip well, so Kanye will be just fine.

I don't remember the old name, because it was useless info, and I intentionally erase irrelevant things/people from my memory. The new name is Badda Bing. You know how there used to be the the not-Crocodile side of Chippewa(college/club/scumbag), and the Croc side? Well, forget all that. This bar was on the not-Croc side. But, the Croc is not the Croc anymore. I give the current owners 6 months. The Croc was, and will be again, the ultimate example of "regression to the mean". Whatever is cool, is what is happening at the Croc, given the relative coolness of the patrons and staff. The Croc is the rock upon all that is Chippewa has/is/will be based. They are open 365 days a year. The Croc will never exist as: the current phony gansta bar with velvet ropes inside, turning half the place into a dopey VIP...dumbly preventing people in the front from reaching the bathrooms. I brought this...minor...issue up. They honestly hadn't even considered it. Like I said: 6 months at most. Hell, I will buy the place if I can, when the people who can't contemplate bathroom access, in a bar, run it into the ground, for pennies on the dollar.

KD....walking right into it. And, btw, if I am feigning ignorance...doesn't that mean I am pretending to be ignorant, when actaully I'm not? Well, um, yeah....that's kinda step 1 in my standard thread activity. That opens the door for the unmitigated morons, to confirm themselves as such, with merely a gentle nudge from me. Dammit! You're on to me! Whatever shall I do? (Other than do what I've been doing for ~10 years now ) Once again I am wasted....yet I am still flying at 30k feet, looking down....and laughing. Same thing for the usual D-bags that tend to chase me around this board(thus, I have their number). I write a post that is designed to draw out the specific behavior I expect, from those I expect it from, and sure as schit...they show up and Pavlov their way through it. Hilarious. I remain better at this than most of you, affer having consumed more than enough alcohol to put most of you in an ambulance, never mind under the table. The good news: the ongoing entertainment value of this place, for me, continues to surprise.\ EDIT: my typing was atrocious. Can't have that.

Most of you know this handle's thing by now. If you don't, it's quite simple: 1. Shame ignorance But, this time? This time I bring you: humor. Check this out: The first rule is no hoodies, the second, no bandanas. Sorry, but I'm not into selfies, hence the flash. Now, consider...beyond the fact that I am wasted...that these rules are currently posted outside a bar that used to be an abject shithole on Chippewa. Clearly this establishment has raised the bar, and its current decor/clients prove it. Ballsy. Essentially...these guys are cutting themselves out of the market for every poseur suburb/college tool, and the fake thugs, as well as the real thugs, who routinely frequent the street. Any of you who have spent real time here have to at least be chuckling at these rules being posted outside a Chippewa bar. I have no opinion or judgement to offer, other than: "hmmm". I did see a dude with a long sleeve t-shirt in the bar. Of course I trolled him about the rules. The dumbass even went outside to look. Italians. EDIT:He never got the long t-shirt, not sleeve, thing. The best part: I got a guest+1 to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones/The Interrupters, for hilarious reasons you don't get to hear(but they are "Bills will move to LA" related). Punk rock requires no explanation, and neither does early morning Chippewa. Libertarian punk rock is, by definition, evident...unless you are an unmitigated moron. I had to wait to post this due to female reasons you also don't get to hear. However, regarding the "hmmm"? This area is now: different. I can't put my finger on it yet. For now? Different. Example: I was curling. That's right, F'ing curling, today. Outside. First time ever. I got to push a stone down the ice, and do all that brushing schit, just like the Olympics. My stone ended up right in the bullseye, but was promptly knocked away. It was surreal. I am considering retiring from curling, because how can I top that? I fell on my ass twice, but it was all glorious. See? Different.

I tend to agree. I don't know where this "ALL rookie QBs are capable of being starters day 1 in the NFL, despite 30 years of history to the contrary...because...that's the way the game is now" came from. This is crap. For literally years we've known that a rookie QBs place is on the bench, precisely so he can learn/develop. We also know that it takes ~3 years for most WRs to truly learn their craft. Now, suddenly all that wisdom, based on real world outcomes for decades, goes out the window? Worse, ALL of the players that have been citied to support this nonsense? Their play has refuted the entire notion. Even Andrew Luck has been struggling, and if Indy was in our division, and we in theirs? We would own that division.

Dear God: I pray for Sal Capacio to take over the afternoon slot at WGR permanently. I pray for all the starving children in the world's...parents...to get off their asses, and at least be partially involved in resolving this problem. I pray for the unmitigated morons, all of them, even the WGR parrot callers. But most of all, I pray for this thread to find some way to be moved to PPP, where we can reign our fire down upon it properly. This mamby pamby reply from DC_Tom, which would be a lot funnier, but, has to be this way because: football board? It's enough to make me sick.

I would say no. Orton was just as likely to suck/get hurt as he was to go 7-5. In a tight spot, with training camp ending and only one credible QB on the roster(EJ), Orton was the quick fix. The cost of quick fixes is usually directly related to scope and scale of the problems they fix. As such, Super Glue costs $3.00. Orton costs...what he costs.

Thanks. I was asked to post more on the football board. This is my response to those requests.

Depends. Are we looking for phony PR-->marketing bump value? Are we not deriving enough revenue from the LBGT community, and would this get us more? Are we trying to make ourselves feel morally superior? do we need a LAMP moment? are we starving for attention? are we desperate to be called "courageous" by some media dingbat whose approval we crave? are we looking to score PC points at the next dinner party, by pointing to the enlightenment of our football team, compared to everybody else's at the table? do we/the Bills feel we need more Facebook friends/likes? are we planning a new hashtag/selfie campaign? If yes to any of those? Of course. But, if we are talking about winning football games? Then no F'ing way. Of course not.

I was driving with my parents on a long trip today. I casually turned on the WGR app and hooked my phone to my speakers, just to observe what would happen. Why not a little experiment/trolling? They don't usually listen to WGR in the afternoon due to work, etc. I said nothing at all, because I didn't want to bias their response to being exposed to 3.5 hours of Mike Schopp. The results were as expected. On every commercial break they were completely refuting 10 minutes Schopp rambling with 1-2 sentences. There was no screaming and yelling, just cold hard refutation, until hours 2.5-3.5, when Schopp basically repeated everything he had already said. Then the screaming began. A few examples: 1. To the 20 minute, and ongoing "throw it down the field" Schopp premise.... "We threw it down the field 3 times to Watkins for 157 yards against the Jets. That's 50 yards/throw. In fact, Watkins almost had a 1000 yard season." And, "If this guy thinks throwing long passes automatically means wins, then Jemarcus Russel is a HOF QB, and Randall Cunnigham was better than Jim Kelly." (Btw, my response is: Marrone was the OC for the Saints, who threw the ball down the field all the friggin time on their way to winning the SB. Of course he can "change" when he has a Drew Brees" ) 2. To the "we can improve our red zone stats....by throwing into the endzone from the 25 yard line" premise... "Explain how scoring from the 25 improves our red zone stats? 3. To the hilarious "Why did Marrone call the owner, and have Russ Brandon call Doug Whaley....isn't that a chain of command problem?" premise... "Apparently this guy has never managed a crisis, which makes sense, since his job is the least critical thing I can imagine." And, "If this guy worked for me, and was screaming about protocol not being followed, when we just lost a key person unexpectedly, and now have to quickly prepare for the media scrutiny to come, he'd be fired on the spot." There are many, many more. I heard the word idiot, moron, and others that will get the @#$ treatment here, used to describe Schopp. But most telling? I heard: "This entire show is merely an echo chamber for idiots." That's my favorite. Brian Koziol finally broke up the fun, for me, when he came on to do the Sabres pregame. In all cases, my little focus group of 2, found Schopp's entire show to be absurd. At the end, all I said was: "This is why I call this nuance-free radio. This is radio for the dumbest, pretending and wishing it was for the smartest". My parents agreed that this is the best way to characterize it.

It's facscinating, to me, that you don't see the relationship between these two statements. Let me help: If the Defense had been bad against Brady, he would have played...more. Also, "Smiley" Garrapolo got his clock cleaned after poking the bear. The point is: we played a football game yesterday, and we won it with ease, against a team who was trying and was pissed that they lost. Brady was doing nothing out there, and taking him out was as much about keeping him from losing confidence as it was about not getting hurt. I kept asking the Pats fans I was with "how many times were they going to let Nigel Bradham have a free run at Brady?" After the 1st qtr, they were literally begging Belechick to sit Brady. The Pats were playing with fire, they realized it, and they sat Brady down. That is the reality of that game. 3 HOF QBs in 4 games, and 0 TDs? Only an umitigated moron, who knows less than nothing(otherwise known as "knowing" things, that aren't true), says that means nothing. And, why is anyone surprised that these simple concepts elude Mike Schopp? Analytics? As an expert in the field(I built my first star schema in 1996), I am fully qualified to say the following: Mike Schopp's understanding, never mind his ability to relate to and then effectively communicate advanced statistical analysis to others? F'ing laughable. The man twisted himself up into getting into an argument with Paul Hamilton on air. Schopp's premise: "Team shooting % is an individual statistic". Hamilton rightly stood his ground and told him he was simply wrong. Schopp then found an excuse for his stupidity in being emotional over an unrelated topic. Pathetic. Schopp is just one of many "sports guys" who are trading on work they have nothing do with, and largely do not comprehend. If you can't build your own "analytics"(which, btw is a hilariously absurd way to say that...but you have to know, to know why), you shouldn't be talking about them.

If we run with this analogy...then Hitler didn't make Hitler. Hitler was created, or better, allowed to be created, by intellectuals and industrialists, the "we know better" crowd...with the notion being that they could control him/use him as a figure head. They were fools, and many were strung up by their real heads with piano wire. That's exactly what's going on here: Warren isn't the thinking. Warren is the messenger for the "thinkers"...no different than Obama. In both cases, neither Obama or Warren have or will operate by their controller's design(largely because it an awful design, and the rest because Socialists, whether they are of the Stalinist or National design, will never allow others to control them, once they have the power)....just like Hitler. Now, again, we can stick our heads in the sand, call everybody else stupid/too disaffected to bother engaging in a real discussion with... or... we can stop making the same mistakes over and over, and then whining about everbody else's pereceptions, when it is our perceptions that need the kick in the ass. IF "Wall Street" had the proper perspective, I wouldn't be hearing things like "Yeah, I know there's a PR problem, but(insert dopey excuse here)...". Instead, I'd be hearing "we have a PR problem no one in this country can afford for us to have, thus, here's what is being done about it". The simple fact is that by blaming everybody else besides yourselves for the PR problem, "Wall Street" does NOTHING to remove the problem, and makes it worse. Doubly so when they use politicians to cover their asses. The real irony here is you pretending that doing the same thing over and over, will somehow yield a differnt result. When we get up tomorrow, it will still be YOUR problem, you will still be part of "Wall Street", like it or not and therefore, this remains YOUR problem to solve. Calling people names/more finance-babble is not going to fix the problem. Niether is telling me to STFU, or whatever else that isn't: owning up to your part in the 2007 mess, and talking about why it will never happen again.

"Everyone's" panties are irrelevant. The Cuban vote in Florida is not. Per B-Man's link above, Cubans in FL panties are bunched. So the real question is: when the Rs win FL in 2016, are you going to get over it? Or...because Ds are still clinging to the "demographics say we should never lose FL" are we going to have to go through another sore loser, waste of time recount, in Florida like we did in 2000? Ya, and if 600k registered Ds hadn't voted green in FL, and voted for Gore, Gore would have won FL. The far left screwed Ds royally in 2000, like they always do. Then Ds respond by nominating a far-left demagogue, complete incompetent in Obama, and you want to blame everybody but yourselves, yet again? I am bored with Ds never taking responsibility for anything that they do to themselves, that has nothing to do with us, Rs, or the rest of the USA. Own the fact that this Cuba thing is yet another stupid, Obama's Great Distraction cannard, because that's precisely what it is. And, when it helps lose you FL, don't blame anybody but Obama. Cuba is part of the Great Distraction: Democrats tactic to avoid the big, losing issues for Democrats, like entitlement reform, structural unemployment, natinonal debt, foreign policy, China in general. So, instead we get Global Warming(the least cared about issue in the country), War on Women, Racism, and now.....Cuba. Democrats in the Federal Government have been running away from every major Federal Government issue( Harry Reid not allowing a vote on anything important) since 2010. Only an unmitigated moron can't see the Great Distraction for what it is = a way to keep power without having to do anything publicly, What they did do from 2009-2010 is so awful, and has failed so badly, no Democrat WANTS to vote FOR anything else....that will be used against them when it fails.

Well, there you have it ladies. What have I been saying about Meaningful Use, and for how long? Where the F is birdog? Mr. "Meaningful Use is No Big Deal". Utter retard. I wonder how many docs are going to continue to see Medicare and Medicaid patients, now that they are being taxed on the already crap wages they get for seeing these people at all? 1% is basically 1/3-1/2 their margin. Answer: stop seeing them. Therefore, what is going to happen when there aren't enough doctors to see these patients? You guessed it! Illegal side payments and/or rationing! Hooray Soviet Health Care! And you know what else? Our "Per Capita Health Spending" #s will "go down"! Awesome! When can we expect a new dopey graph that shows phony per capita spending by nation in this thread! I can't wait for that. Democrats will say "see, I told you we'd cut costs!" (Actually, morons, cutting cost is not spending less, because nobody can get seen, because there are no doctors willing to see them. That has nothing to do with cutting costs. That's called crushing supply, while artificially lowering/maintaining the price. 100% of the time, this forms a black market...and welcome to the Soviet system) Yeah! It's as phony as can be, but cheer anyway! Hooray! This.argument == over. Big time. This one ends with birdog's head on a spike. Once again, as I have said many times: I just got 257k potential new customers. I should be happy. I should be the biggest supporter of Obamacare's idiocy in the land. But, I'm not, because it Fs the country.

I would submit that this is very far from a side note. FL wins elections, and Cubans win FL. I wonder how the "demographics for Democrats" myth supporters are going to feel when the Cubans in FL, having slowly degraded over time in terms of staunch R support and turnout, suddenly are re-energized by this, and return to Reagan-era voting performance, and win the 3 Miami counties that no R has won since then? This Cuba stuff may actually be the final nail for the "demographics" myth...although i know the far-left will keep saying it.

Some of those PFs were ridiculous....like the "patting your own player on the helmet for making a good play" PF Hughes got. I will grant you, not all. However, I think you are right to consider that you've watched all the Bills games, and perhaps not all the Texans games, or all of anybody's games. There's a good chance you have some confidence bias happening here. Lawrence Taylor got at lot of deserved PFs. Didn't hurt them at all. Christ, the entire Raiders team used to be based in part on getting at least 3 PFs a game, but that's when they were winning a lot. They intimidated everybody(ahem, except the Bills of course), most penalized team in the league...but also, division champions. The difference was, as you stated, those players/teams made HUGE plays on defense. Just huge, game turning plays, like Hughe's stripping the RB for a TD, after drawing a holding penalty, I might add. Hughes has drawn a lot of penalties this year. In fact, if we counted up the drawn/taken, he'd probably break even. The simplel fact is that a guy, who might make a huge play, but also might get a penalty, beats the hell out of Chris Kelsay every time. I don't think Hughes is worth Mario $, and, I think Hughes better think before he jumps to another team that doesn't have the same kind of D line we have. Purely in terms of the game/fame...Hughes would be a fool to leave Buffalo and this line. He has a chance to be a legend/go on our wall. The "good, with a chance at being great" smart players, like Steve Tasker, think long term. The dumb players always think about short-term $, and never about life after football. And, if some other team wants to do a re-enactment of over-paying for Andy Levitre, and not getting their money's worth....what the F are the Bills supposed to do about it? That's the league today. We need to make a good, long term offer to Hughes, and then think no more of it. We can't control him or the other teams.

I terrorized my mother with the "Schwartz gets HC job at Jets, Rex Ryan comes to Buffalo as DC" scenario the other day. She hadn't even considered it. Now, I guess I made the scenario plausible enough for her to live in constant fear of this coming true. She hates the idea. Absolutely hates it. Personally, I can't see how Rex and Doug get along. However, I can see how Buffalo would be at the top of Rex's list. And, I can see how Whaley would do this as a publicity thing as much as good coaching move. Meanwhile, Schwartz would get a solid D, and high draft picks to work with, and probably 3 years to turn things around. He might even get a new GM, which would allow him more autonomy. Not a bad look. Schwartz would be an even better fit for the Bears, "fix the D", etc. Like it or not, the Bills are relevant in December for the first time in 10 years. Staying relevant next year...might include adding Rex. I mean, that single move does more than signing Mario Williams for Buffalo's media coverage. You know the media will be all over us at training camp, waiting for Rex and Doug to have their first fight. This is show business. And, Rex knows he needs to go to place that has a no-brainer D, so he can get his mojo back. See? Rex to the Bills gets more plausible the more you think about it. Sleep well.

It doesn't matter what I've heard. In this thread, I am merely helping jboyst, and the millions like him, to express himself in a way you guys are more likely to understand. Ask jboyst if he's ever heard of it. Ask a whole bar full of people, whether its a dive or a classy place, if they've ever heard of it. The answer is no. That's why I am saying appoint a Commissioner, make a show of it, and make that person just as relevant(otherwise known as in the media all the time) as Roger Goddell. I don't remember the last time I read about FINRA on the front page...of anything. Get it? And again, the converse argument can be made about all finance people: they don't want to educate anyone, because it's beneath them/could cost them $. It's better for both sides, the willfully ignorant, and, the willfully arrogant, to proceed as things are: I get that. You can clearly see the ignorant side, can you also see the arrogant side? And, my original point remains unscathed: you might want to be a little less indifferent, because if we end up with Warren as POTUS? We're all going to wish we were never born. As an industry, doing a little explaining of yourselves, your choices, and how we will avoid another 2007 going forward...would go a long way to busting Warren as the benighted inquisitor that she is. Interesting. When I first starting doing health care, this was the exact same attitude. We've changed that attitude, at least amongst my health care clients, significantly. They fight regulators now, and win, routinely. Which is why we don't advertise. There's got to be somebody in this world that is capable of taking on the problems you face and providing a better solution than what you are doing now. Perhaps a good place to start would be recognizing that by being "above" showing up for court...of public opinion, or in the media, or the internet...you aren't going to endear yourselves to anyone, especially those who are willing to hear you out. And, in my business? Blaming the client gets you fired. We would never call "give them the rope, and see what they do with it", professional conduct. When I was in Dallas consulting a mortgage company you know, one of the managers at the "factory"(my term...it's a hilarious place where they carried mortgages around in laundry baskets, rolled them on conveyor belts, and hung them on wire lines, and shot them down the lines...the absurdity is hard to put into words), completely and accurately predicted 2006-7 in every detail. He told me everything as he was carrying the "liar basket"...containing the now-famous Barney Frank mortgages...to the desk that handled them. He knew damn well that they had to approve them, or risk the government's wrath. So, they set up the desk and had developed a program in MS Access ( that company literally had "first name" recorded independently in 253 different forms, programs, and even different databases = why I was there) to track these liar mortgages in detail, so that when they inevitably foreclosed, they could beat back the Fannie Mae/regulator nonsense. I believe that if we could have put that guy in front of Congress for just a half hour none of this would have ever happened. So, if you have correctly defined both the problem and the solution as you see it, where the F is it? I know! You'd rather keep blaming the the client, right? Better: why don't you try telling everyone that they know nothing and you know everything, and they should just STFU and buy a mutual fund, again. That's sure to stop Warren. It won't play right into her hands or anything. Nah. She won't use it as a pretense to demagogue you at all. This thread proves one thing beyond all doubt: Your industry needs a kick in the ass, not a pat on the back. Get off your asses and do something. Do you want Warren to make the case, Hillary to steal the case, get elected, and F things up worse than they already are?

Still missing it I see. Sure there is such a thing. That's the perception, and therefore, that is the reality. EDIT: And please, spare us the pretense that you have nothing to do with creating this perception. Your industry is as responsible for the myth as anyone. If the myth wasn't there, and everyone educated themselves as much as is being demanded in this thread? A whole lot of you would be out of a job. Now, as your consultant in this thread, I'm telling you: you're missing something. You can listen to me, and see/act on it, or, you can continue to believe that the solution to your problem requires more finance-babble, elitism, and looking down your nose at the uneducated. I am every bit as educated on this subject as anyone else in this thread. The difference is: I am educated in other things as well. Hence, I can say: you are missing something. This is entirely useless. In fact it's counterproductive. Nobody gives a F how your industry works, all they want is for it to stop causing a general panic every 5 years or so. Now, can you get on that, or, are you still having trouble defining YOUR problem, and what to do about it? It is your problem, because you and yours are the pilots in this harbor, and we are all constantly reminded in word and deed(often by you) that you are the pilots. Thus nobody believes you, even if you are right, when you say that running the ship aground wasn't your fault. You can't claim to be the all-knowing pilots of the financial ship, AND, claim 0 responsibility for it running aground... ... at the same time. What? It's completely different. These 2 things have no relationship to each other at all. Here's the thing: I'm telling you that your fly is unzipped(massive PR problem), because it is. Now, you can either zip it up, or keep walking around with it unzipped. When everybody else sees that it is unzipped, tells you, and you ignore them, after a while, it's going to get around that you insist on keeping it unzipped. Most people will either think you're a dumbass or gross. Either way, you are making a choice. It's your fly, and it's unzipped. This has nothing to do with some clown in Europe coming up with wild speculations as to whether and why your fly is unzipped. He and his ravings are irrelevant. We are not. We can see your fly, and it's unzipped. Now, WTF are you going to do about it? Blame us/everybody else? Or, cut the crap and zip your damn fly. Again, nobody cares why it's unzipped. We have our own lives/things we need to focus on. Just fix the damn thing, and promise to try harder to no sell garbage products again, and F everything up, again. Simple. Yet, you won't do it. Rather, you insist on going to the politicians and getting them to pass laws that allow you to keep running around with an open fly, and hurl "populist!" invective at anyone...who is merely telling you: your fly is unzipped. You can't cry about regulation, but also, never lift a finger to self-regulate, and, go out of your way to blame everybody but yourselves when things go bad...at the same time. If you don't want to take responsibility, fine: then take the regulation. That's root problem here: you want to be authorative, both in your industry, and even here in this this thread, but not responsible. Why the finance industry hasn't appointed it's own Commissioner, like MLB, or the NFL, with real power to "suspend" and "fine"/set up the same sort of rules "for the league" I'll never know. All these supposedly smart people, and they can't see a solution like that, that is so simple, and such an easy PR win? Where would the Democrats/pro-regulation/bank haters go after something like that? Nowhere. You'd take the argument away from them. And your problem is as I said above: You want the authority to make the markets, but none of the responsibility, when the markets you make go south. Again, the solution is simple: accept the responsibility for the markets you make,, and do what I said above. The SEC is a waste of time/$, and so is the FTC. IF these people had your talent, they'd be doing what you do. Therefore, these people add 0 value, and merely F things up for you, which creates cost you pass on to us, and, on occasion(Barney Frank) F things up for the entire country. Yeah, there's no such thing as doctors, whose father was a doctor, whose grandfather was a doctor, all of whom attended Hopkins. The family business, is the family business. I know a guy whose financial guy father taught him about derivatives and that market when he was 6, and has been trading in them ever since. I don't see how that is any more nefarious than the pizza guy who teaches his children how to make a pizza. They all have an "unfair" advantage, because they are learning more than other kids at an earlier age? Utter crap. WTF are we supposed to do? Ban the transfer of knowledge/experience from parent to child? This is also why "privilege" is a ridiculous argument. "Planning and execution" is the correct word. When my parents both got their masters at the same time, and we were very poor, my parents were planning...to not be poor. Then, they executed. I didn't grow up "privileged". My family's situation in life was planned, then executed. Period.

We need a PPP-specific sound effect .mp3 every time somebody says this. This is a PPP must have.. Ideas/suggestions, then narrow it down, and we need a vote on this. Twould(this is the time of year for "tw"ing things) be even better if, as you scroll through posts, when you get to the element with this in it, the sound effect goes off automatically. I could do it, but I highly doubt they would let me anywhere near the code for this site.

In that you are in error. Warren has no interest in protecting the individual, in anything. The reason she looks like she is trying, is because that is the political approach = rallying the willfully ignorant, I am talking about. IF Warren had her way, the government would completely control banks, and even corporations, as has been done in Europe so many times. St. Gobain was nationalized by France....for about a year, and that was a complete failure. Warren wants to repeat mistakes like that. She is worse than Wall Street, because at least Wall Street has a profit motive, and profit means jobs. Warren has a power motive. That helps nobody but Warren, and whoever else attends her at her "court". Warren essentially wants to return us to Feudalism, where pieces of the economy are handed out to government barons, and provided they pay their tithes, they can squeeze their fiefs and then hand out bread and have circuses to appease the serfs. Ever lived in a city? Ever seen the people who vote D get a free turkey? Feudalism. Most Democrat-controlled cities are merely feudal city-states no different than Middle Age Florence, but, with bad princes, not good ones like the DiMedicis, in charge. Hence, Detroit. They want "income equality"...because they want power inequality. If all of us are making $30-40k a year, all of us have mediocre power. Then, all of us are highly susceptible to the Feudal state Warren wants to impose. One where not "the collective" but "her collective" exists to benefit itself, like a hive benefits the queen, and the rest of us are either lucky to be drones, or unlucky enough to be what the hive feeds on. This is all justified as "progress", becasue Warren "knows better". Small businesses like yours are the bane of Warren's existence: she'd much rather have you be part of the Farmer's Union....which takes 20% of your harvest in return for "protection" from the EPA, Interior, etc, and tells you what to plant, what to raise, when and how. Feudalism.

See, it's also about tactics. I understand Wall Steet holding off the batshit Ds by paying the rational Ds off. That was a good tactic...7 years ago. Now? It's time to move on from that, and for them to fix their own problems themselves. They have the opportunity with an R Congress to reassure you that they are responsible adults, not petulant children. Libertarians have been in full support of holding individuals responsibe, in civil, not crminal court, for years. The only thing Wall Street types truly fear is destitution. F regulation. Guys like me get hired to circumvent regulation all the time. We typically have work-arounds in place before the regulation ink dries. IF Wall Street types want to gamble with our economy, then lets go the whole way: they have to pay out personally when they lose, make everybody that they hurt whole, and they get to be homeless. When poverty is the punishment? You'll see change on Wall Street. EDIT: And, how is giving more power to DC to control Wall Street, supposed to fix the problems that were caused by DC selling influence to Wall Street? This is circular reasoning at it's finest.